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8TB has remained an elusive target for consumer SSDs, with the vast majority of NVMe options being limited to just 4TB. Realistically, there are only two real solutions on the market today. The first is drives based on Phison’s E18 controller, first pioneered in the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus. Sabrent actually achieved 8TB even earlier using QLC flash and the Phison E12 with the Rocket Q. Both of these were industry-changing drives, which put pressure on other manufacturers to up their capacity game. The former, in particular, led to multiple 8TB drives being put out on the market, although the price remained high. That unfortunately means that there is precedent for Samsung to charge $999.99 for the 8TB 9100 Pro.
More than two years later, though, Western Digital finally responded with an 8TB SKU for its popular Black SN850X SSD. What was most exceptional about this play was two-fold: first, WD used new flash to avoid a regression in performance, and second, the drive was soon priced aggressively. Contrast this to the 8TB E18-based drives, which used slower flash than the originals and maintained higher prices. It appears Samsung has taken at least one page from WD’s playbook, as performance – compare the launch 9100 Pro in our charts – remains decent, which is challenging to do. As for pricing, well, high-end Gen 5 SSDs command a higher premium, so that is not unexpected.
The 9100 Pro, regardless of capacity, has to rival the best Gen 5 SSDs on the market. This includes the SM2508-based Sandisk WD_Black SN8100 with BiCS8 TLC flash, the SM2508-based Crucial T710 with Micron’s newest TLC, and the upcoming drive platform based on Phison's E28 controller. We lastly throw the Biwin Black Opal X570 into the mix as it is a good fill-in for “budget” high-end PCIe 5.0 drives that are using older hardware, whether flash or controller. This would include SM2508-based drives with older flash, such as the Acer Predator GM9000, as well as E26-based drives, like the Sabrent Rocket 5. These candidates can all technically achieve 8TB, so theoretically could become a less expensive alternative to the 8TB 9100 Pro, although we think that this is increasingly unlikely as time goes on.
Trace Testing — 3DMark Storage Benchmark
Built for gamers, 3DMark’s Storage Benchmark focuses on real-world gaming performance. Each round in this benchmark stresses storage based on gaming activities including loading games, saving progress, installing game files, and recording gameplay video streams. Future gaming benchmarks will be DirectStorage-inclusive and we also include notes about which drives may be future-proofed.
Want an 8TB SSD just for games? Well, we’d recommend the SN850X, but the 9100 Pro does up the ante with better performance. It even beats the 2TB X570, although the other PCIe 5.0 drives come out ahead.
If you’re the type who wants every little bit of performance and you drag and drop huge games on a regular basis, then the 8TB 9100 Pro might make sense. However, the SN8100 is promised to have an 8TB SKU in the future, which might throw a wrench into Samsung’s plans. Personally, we think that using multiple 4TB drives for games is the best solution for desktop users, but the 8TB SN8100 could be amazing for high-end mobile gaming.
Trace Testing — PCMark 10 Storage Benchmark
PCMark 10 is a trace-based benchmark that uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and everyday tasks to measure the performance of storage devices. The results are particularly useful when analyzing drives for their use as primary/boot storage devices and in work environments.
PCMark 10 is more interesting for HEDT and workstation users in particular. We can see that going to 8TB does reduce the 9100 Pro’s performance, which isn’t surprising as its controller is designed to operate optimally with up to thirty-two dies at 4TB. It still offers a significant boost over the 8TB SN850X and Rocket 4 Plus and gets within striking distance of the T710. It’s not likely that the 8TB 9100 Pro would be your primary and only drive on a desktop, so this level of performance is quite acceptable. Even demanding applications should be fine.
We can anticipate that some users would argue for a striped array or RAID 0 as an effective alternative, which is a real possibility. There are downsides to that approach in terms of power consumption, M.2 slot usage, bandwidth over the chipset for consumer motherboards, cooling, and more. While a RAID 0 can definitely help you match the capacity and bandwidth of an 8TB 9100 Pro, reaching higher IOPS would be challenging. Additionally, latency will be increased in an array. As such, the 8TB 9100 Pro is probably a better solution for general HEDT and workstation use. If you’re getting to the point where a large RAID makes more sense, then the 8TB 9100 Pro’s cost is probably not prohibitive. Samsung is, after all, not shy in marketing this drive for AI, and we think that such home lab use is a realistic application that could benefit.
Console Testing — PlayStation 5 Transfers
The PlayStation 5 is capable of taking one additional PCIe 4.0 or faster SSD for extra game storage. While any 4.0 drive will technically work, Sony recommends drives that can deliver at least 5,500 MB/s of sequential read bandwidth for optimal performance. In our testing, PCIe 5.0 SSDs don’t bring much to the table and generally shouldn’t be used in the PS5, especially as they may require additional cooling. Check our Best PS5 SSDs article for more information.
Our testing utilizes the PS5’s internal storage test and manual read/write tests with over 192GB of data both from and to the internal storage. Throttling is prevented where possible to see how each drive operates under ideal conditions. While game load times should not deviate much from drive to drive, our results can indicate which drives may be more responsive in long-term use.
Of all the moments of overkill, perhaps an 8TB 9100 Pro in a PS5 is the most. If you have the money to spare then it is certainly one way to indulge in a luxury. Still, we would recommend the SN850X instead if you need this level of capacity for the console.
Transfer Rates — DiskBench
We use the DiskBench storage benchmarking tool to test file transfer performance with a custom, 50GB dataset. We write 31,227 files of various types, such as pictures, PDFs, and videos to the test drive, then make a copy of that data to a new folder, and follow up with a reading test of a newly-written 6.5GB zip file. This is a real world type workload that fits into the cache of most drives.
The relevance of DiskBench can vary from drive to drive. Sure, bandwidth for file transfers is always important for storage, but if you’re doing mostly reads and especially smaller reads, then it is a less useful metric. However, it’s very important for high-end, large-capacity drives because you’re buying them for the extreme experience: extreme performance and extreme capacity.
The 8TB 9100 Pro performs perfectly here, very close to its 2TB incarnation and the T710. The E28 ES and SN8100 perform better, but where are the 8TB versions of those drives? We don’t know how they will perform once they finally arrive. Right now, that leaves the 9100 Pro as the king of this capacity.
Synthetic Testing — ATTO / CrystalDiskMark
ATTO and CrystalDiskMark (CDM) are free and easy-to-use storage benchmarking tools that SSD vendors commonly use to assign performance specifications to their products. Both of these tools give us insight into how each device handles different file sizes and at different queue depths for both sequential and random workloads.
The 8TB 9100 Pro’s ATTO results show no real discrepancies with solid, all-around performance. There are dips at the 2MiB block size, but for reads, the 9100 Pro is not alone, as the SN8100 also indicates a drop there.
The drop for 2MiB writes is the only real anomaly, and we would chalk this up to the capacity: managing this many dies across eight channels is challenging. At 2MiB, you could have the requirement for multi-planar writes for all dies at once, which is inevitably going to increase latency with shifting chip enable signals and additional pressure on the F-Chips. In layman's terms, the hardware is being pushed to its limit in a way that can reduce observed performance because the controller is also trying to maintain power consumption and signal integrity within a reasonable envelope. It’s not exactly the same as temperature throttling, but it can have a similar result. The 8TB 9100 Pro does recover at 4MiB, potentially due to improved multi-planar efficiency.
When we translate that to the somewhat real-world impact with CrystalDiskMark’s sequential results, we see that the 8TB 9100 Pro struggles a bit with writes. It underperforms its 2TB counterpart at both tested queue depths and, in general, falls behind other high-end Gen 5 SSDs. Reads are better, although the E28 platform remains the best with QD1 reads – this is something to keep in mind for future reviews, as QD1 sequential reads can be an important metric for file transfers and game-loading. We also see some impact on 4K write latency, but in general, that result isn’t as relevant as it would at first appear. We commonly see excellent results there with QLC flash, for instance, because you’re hitting the pSLC cache.
Much more important to the consumer experience, and also for some select heavier workloads, is 4KB random read latency. Samsung does well here, although this flash is showing its age versus Micron’s newest 276-Layer TLC on the T710 and the BiCS8 TLC on the SN8100 and E28. However, Samsung comes out on top when looking at peak 4K random read IOPS, which definitely favors it for some server applications. Storage density can be important for that type of role, although at some point, you cross over into needing enterprise solutions.
Sustained Write Performance and Cache Recovery
Official write specifications are only part of the performance picture. Most SSDs implement a write cache, which is a fast area of pseudo-SLC (single-bit) programmed flash that absorbs incoming data. Sustained write speeds can suffer tremendously once the workload spills outside of the cache and into the "native" TLC (three-bit) or QLC (four-bit) flash. Performance can suffer even more if the drive is forced to fold, which is the process of migrating data out of the cache in order to free up space for further incoming data.
We use Iometer to hammer the SSD with sequential writes for 15 minutes to measure both the size of the write cache and performance after the cache is saturated. We also monitor cache recovery via multiple idle rounds. This process shows the performance of the drive in various states as well as the steady state write performance.
The 8TB 9100 Pro first writes in a single-bit pSLC mode by trading capacity for speed to reach maximum performance. Samsung’s TurboWrite technology involves having a dual-mode cache with a small, static first part and a larger dynamic or “intelligent” second part. Static pSLC is always available to the drive and has particularly high endurance. It’s generally written to and emptied first, which makes it useful for bursty random writes regardless of the drive’s state. The dynamic portion varies in size based on how full the drive is.
For the entire cache, the drive writes at over 12.6 GB/s for just over 162 seconds for a cache of about 2TiB. This is absolutely monstrous, as 4TB drives with TurboWrite 2.0 only have 442GB caches. Instead of just doubling the cache, Samsung is quadrupling it. This cannot be by chance, and as an intentional decision, it makes a lot of sense for an ultra-high capacity drive. Having a cache this large and fast is something that puts all other drives in the testbed to shame, although we caution that WD/Sandisk drives lean on aggressively large caches these days – you can gauge this in the SN850X and SN8100 results – and as such any 8TB SN8100 response is likely to rival the 9100 Pro.
Such a large cache comes at a cost: the steady state write speed is only 1.7 GB/s. This is still higher than the 2TB SKU, but is certainly less than what is achievable with this flash. Considering that Samsung still manages to avoid a slow folding state – where latency is increased and write performance decreases due to the drive needing to free up pSLC before allowing more incoming writes through – this is a fair trade-off. It might not be what is ideal for certain heavier workloads, but in those cases, you are probably looking at enterprise drives anyway. For high-end consumer use, this result is nothing short of incredible at this time and is, quite simply, unmatched. Running dual 4TB SN8100s in a striped array would probably be the closest alternative, but that solution would not be nearly as consistent as a single 8TB 9100 Pro.
Power Consumption and Temperature
We use the Quarch HD Programmable Power Module to gain a deeper understanding of power characteristics. Idle power consumption is an important aspect to consider, especially if you're looking for a laptop upgrade as even the best ultrabooks can have mediocre stock storage. Desktops may be more performance-oriented with less support for power-saving features, so we show the worst-case.
Some SSDs can consume watts of power at idle while better-suited ones sip just milliwatts. Average workload power consumption and max consumption are two other aspects of power consumption but performance-per-watt, or efficiency, is more important. A drive might consume more power during any given workload, but accomplishing a task faster allows the drive to drop into an idle state more quickly, ultimately saving energy.
The moment of truth: can this drive possibly be power-efficient? Yes, but with some caveats. For one, it is less efficient than the smaller SKUs, although the difference is small. Secondly, it’s not that much more efficient than the 8TB SN850X. The good news is that the differences here are insignificant, and no one is expecting an 8TB consumer drive to be efficient. It’s efficient enough for its desired application.
We do think this can be improved – the 8TB SN8100 looms menacingly on the horizon – but we wouldn’t dismiss the 9100 Pro out of hand for this result. The drive should run cool enough if you have a heatsink – we wouldn’t recommend doing 2TB of full-on sustained writes without one, and yes, we’re looking at you – and ultimately will take less power than a 2x4TB array. If we have to side one way or another, we would probably say this drive is more efficient than we anticipated, considering how close it gets to the 2TB.
Test Bench and Testing Notes
CPU | Row 0 - Cell 2 | |
Motherboard | Row 1 - Cell 2 | |
Memory | Row 2 - Cell 2 | |
Graphics | Intel Iris Xe UHD Graphics 770 | Row 3 - Cell 2 |
CPU Cooling | Row 4 - Cell 2 | |
Case | Row 5 - Cell 2 | |
Power Supply | Row 6 - Cell 2 | |
OS Storage | Row 7 - Cell 2 | |
Operating System | Row 8 - Cell 2 |
We use an Alder Lake platform with most background applications such as indexing, Windows updates, and anti-virus disabled in the OS to reduce run-to-run variability. Each SSD is prefilled to 50% capacity and tested as a secondary device. Unless noted, we use active cooling for all SSDs.
Samsung 9100 Pro Bottom Line
The 8TB Samsung 9100 Pro is nothing short of an accomplishment. This much flash on one of the fastest drives on the planet is what people have been asking for, going back to even the earliest PCIe 5.0 drives. To top it off, it’s coming from a brand that’s well-known and respected in memory and storage markets. This isn’t some generic 8TB drive where you have to hope you can get support if anything happens to your expensive investment. And expensive it is, with a retail starting price of $999.99, which sounds like a lot until you remember that this was not an uncommon price for 8TB Gen 4 drives back in the day. In fact, the earliest 8TB drives cost more than this and were quite in limited supply.
When capacity was the highest priority over performance, grey market enterprise SSDs remained a good option, albeit usually SATA or U.2 SSDs, and not M.2 except in the 22100 form factor. That is, until the 8TB Black SN850X arrived late last year. That drive was and is a game-changer, and WD has aggressively priced all opposition out of the market at 8TB. It remains our recommendation for a high-capacity drive if you don’t need a higher level of performance. If you do need higher performance, then the new 8TB 9100 Pro is not a bad choice, even at its high price point. It should be on sale at some point or another, and it has no real drawbacks that we can see.
Will faster or better 8TB PCIe 5.0 drives eventually arrive? Yes, but we’re done pretending it’s “just around the corner” for Phison and now SMI drives – Samsung defiantly launched this SKU in order to be the first. We do think Sandisk won’t wait around, and an 8TB Black SN8100 is something we really want to see. Such a drive could be faster and more efficient than the 9100 Pro, and if you’ve waited this long, you can probably wait longer. The 8TB 9100 Pro is therefore more for the impatient, and that makes it hard to give it a higher score. We have to add that we don’t know how the 8TB Black SN8100 will be priced, but we expect it to be competitive, and we have to take that into consideration.
Another option enthusiasts could take is to run multiple, lower-capacity drives instead. With the right hardware, this can make sense and will work with an array or in a pool. 4TB drives are far more common and are less expensive per TB, so why not? Well, more drives means more slots, more power and heat, more physical space taken up, more maintenance, and more drives to worry about, etc. This solution is harder to support for laptops, obviously, and systems that have limited fast PCIe connectivity, although multiple Gen 4 drives are certainly workable for desktops. However, multi-SSD add-in cards are expensive – certainly the ones that have their own bifurcation – and having a single drive is just simpler. For that, the 8TB 9100 Pro is unmatched at this time, so it’s an easy choice.
We’re glad that Samsung has decided to be more aggressive with its SSD launches, and make no mistake, this drive is harder to make than it at first appears. This is a full-fledged, double-sided drive with very high levels of performance. It’s an achievement, and anybody who wants the very best will covet this drive. 8TB at this performance level, outside of enterprise, is almost too good to be true. We hope it forces the hands of others to produce and offer larger drives with, in time, a lower price point, although this is a difficult hill to climb in an era of storage paucity, thanks to AI prioritization. We’re just glad there is still a company willing to take that first bold step in a new direction.
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